The Hindu : Kerala News : `Probe pipe deal'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

`Probe pipe deal'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 12. The Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, has sought an independent inquiry into the change in the tender norms for purchase of the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)-aided drinking water supply scheme.

In a statement here today, Mr. Achuthanandan alleged that the purchase of pipes worth Rs. 600 crores for the project would result in a loss of Rs. 60 crores and that the tender norms were changed to favour a particular company following political pressure from New Delhi. Under the earlier norms, pipes could be purchased from companies with 10 years' experience and those with less than 10 years' experience could gain eligibility for supplying pipes by making a security deposit of 5 per cent of the project cost. This implied that even new players in the industry could bid for the contract if they were prepared to deposit 5 per cent of the project cost. Further, if a particular supplier had foreign collaboration, that would also have been taken into account.

The original norms would have ensured healthy competition among the suppliers and financial benefit for the Government, but the Government has now amended the tender norms to the effect that those with not less than two years' experience alone would be eligible to participate in the tender and that the minimum experience need not exceed five years. Both these changes have been effected to favour a particular company, Mr. Achuthanandan said.

Tender norms

The Opposition Leader wanted to know what prompted authorities to amend the tender norms and alleged that the very fact the authorities concerned do not have any convincing explanation for this showed that the changes are the result of a conspiracy. His own information is that officials of the company in question has greased the palms of the political leadership and officials to get the tender norms amended, he said

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